Spotlight - Ocean Sole

I'm recently joined this fun Facebook group that shows off interesting thrift store finds, and was amazed to see a colorful lion (like the ones pictured below!) that the owner described as being made from "some type of foam". I recognized the lion from some cool videos I had seen last year and did a quick search to see if I could learn more.

The company is called Ocean Sole, and believe it or not, these colorful creations are made out of flip-flops! Ocean Sole was founded by Julie Church, who noticed children making toys out of washed up flip-flops on the beach, and recognized the potential for families to make income from the sandals, while also having a positive environmental impact.

Ocean Sole is providing:

• full time income to 100 Kenyans
• some income for 1000 Kenyans
• education initiatives benefiting 10,000 
• recycling of 750,000 flip-flops

The sandals are collected, washed, melded together, then hand-carved, sanded, and finished. Check out this short video on the process:

I'm just loving how creative these creatures are, and they seem like a fun gift for the animal lover or conservationist in your life. The small sculptures average about 6" in the largest dimension and $23-29, and the medium are about 11" and $42-49. (Feeling bold and have a large space? The XL giraffe is 54" tall and $675!)

For more information, or to support them, check out the original website here, or the US shopping site here.

Used Doesn't Have to Be Inconvenient

I love thrift stores and second-hand stores like Half Price Books. But when you are looking for something specific, it can be a challenge to find what you want. Fortunately, thrifting can be done from the convenience of your couch and with delivery right to your door.

For clothing, there are numerous sites like Thred Up and Swap.com. Recently, I needed a popular book (thanks Allison for inviting me to book club!), and after checking my local Half Price Books, turned to trusty Amazon.

If you're used to just clicking "Add to Cart", take one additional step to buy second-hand: for books, click "Used From" underneath the format you like, or for other types of products click "New and Used From". This will bring you to the page with all of the sellers for that product.

Scared to order something from someone other than "Amazon"?

Just look for these clues for a good experience:

1. Condition: there are various used conditions. I usually filter for Very Good or Like New. 
2. Total price + shipping: you don't want to end up paying more for used because you didn't see the shipping. 
3. Delivery Time: you probably won't get 2 day shipping, but also probably don't want 6 week shipping from China. You should see options for a week or less. 
4. A high star-rating (I only buy from sellers with 4+ stars): and if you have any trouble, you can still contact Amazon customer service for support. 

I ordered my book from, guess who... Goodwill! That's right, even your thrift store may be online-savvy.

I ordered Used - Good condition, and was pleased that the only damage was some bending on the back cover. 

All in all, I saved $5.22 on the book and had it delivered to me, and gave one book a second life.

Fearless Fashion

Reason #8453 why I love thrifting: it makes me brave to try new trends.

Check out this intense floral embroidery that started becoming popular around 2017:

You saw this happen, right? It's everywhere... on everything:

I've always been a little intimidated by bold pants, instead opting for plain denim or black pants, and saving my experimentation for say, earrings.

But then I found these embellished jeans at Goodwill, and it was an easy sell. Not only are they subtly adventurous with their monchromatic embroidery, but thrifting means I'm not out much if I change my mind.

Check out that giant embroidery! 

Pair it with a floral top and my orange Rothy's, and I have a chic, sustainable outfit. If I change my mind? Donate them back to the thrift store, and at least they've gotten a few more wears out of them.

Kut From the Cloth jeans new: $89

Thrifted: $14

Savings: $75

Birthday Treat with a Vintage Twist

My dear friend, Tatiana, celebrated a birthday this week. She is a mushroom hobbyist, taking awesome photos of mushrooms on her daily walks in the fall, including the famed red "Mario" mushrooms.

So when I saw a recipe for a yule log with meringue mushrooms growing on it, I just knew I needed to make it for her birthday. Something I didn't have was any way to transport a cake. I'm not much of a baker, so I just don't have these things.

Fortunately, the Value Village near me has a quite a good selection of housewares, and I found a vintage Tupperware cake taker for just $4.99. And since blue tags were half off that day, it came home with me for $2.50.

If you are newer to thrift shopping, most of the larger chains like Value Village and Goodwill have a color system for their tags which helps them rotate their inventory. They have 4 or 5 colors of tags, and one color each week is at a steep discount. Over the course of a month, all of their inventory has been offered at a sale, and whatever isn't sold moves on to outlet stores or recycling.

Similar cake carriers go for about $40, for either the vintage Tupperware or the new model, so this felt like an awesome deal!

Now to bake the cake. Fortunately, my mom is a more experienced baker than I am and was available for a baking date. Yule logs are a fair amount of effort to make so we settled on a "stump" instead of a log, using frosting to make a bark-like texture and tree rings. This also fit perfectly on the base of the cake taker.

We finished off the cake with "mushrooms" made from meringue and dusted with cocoa powder, and "moss" which was actually a sprinkling of matcha powder. 

 

This cake taker ended up being the perfect solution, with the sturdy base, and the lid providing enough room for the mushrooms. I was able to transport the cake around town safely, with no frosting smudging. 

Happy Birthday, Tatiana!

Are you in the Loop?

GUYS, I'M SO EXCITED!!!

I've talked about buying from the bulk bins before, but sadly, there are limited stores in my neighborhood, and not all the products I want. I really just want to refill my giant conditioner bottle with my favorite popular brand in a super convenient way.

Enter Terracycle. Terracycle is known for its "brigades", partnerships with large brands to recycle their not traditionally easy to recycle packaging (think Nescafe capsules or Colgate toothpaste tubes). Terracycle is now partnering with some of these same large consumer brands for a new program called Loop.

Loop was just announced this week at the World Economic Forum, and is making huge waves. Just Google "Terracycle Loop" for dozens of articles ranging from major news and business publications to smaller green magazines.

Loop takes a different approach: instead of recycling packaging, it will use the old milkman model. Deliver goods in a reusable packaging, then take the packaging back for cleaning and reuse. Loop already has multiple popular brands lined up, like Dove, Cascade, Haagen Dazs, and Seventh Generation. This promises the products I already love, with the convenience of delivery, and no more guilt from single-use packaging. Look at these gorgeous, reusable metal bottles with pumps.

(image borrowed from loopstore.com)

They are getting started in New York and Paris, but... you can sign up here now to show your interest. Let's flood them with interest, so we can be in their next market!

Let's close the loop with Loop!

Neighborhood Spotlight: West Seattle

A couple weeks ago, I headed to West Seattle to visit this one shop I love and never get to enough. I park my car and on my way to the store, I got distracted by *all the reuse stores*! We're talking thrifting, consignment, antiques. The West Seattle Junction (California Ave SW and SW Alaska St) does not disappoint. 

I popped into the Stop 'N Shop, a small shop that benefits the West Seattle Senior Center, and is mostly housewares. I was going to just take a quick look around and get back on my mission when I saw these great Chinese Laundry flats, normally $60 new, for just $8.

With the brown leather and black suede, these are simple flats that go with everything from work to weekend. I wore them to work today with some dark skinny jeans.

In addition to the Stop 'N Shop (4504 California), here are some other reuse stores in the Junction:

Antique Mall of West Seattle (4516 California)
Funky Jane's Consignment Shop (4455 California)
Pegasus Book Exchange (4553 California)
Thunder Road Guitars (4736 California)
Western Jewelry & Coin Exchange (4210 Alaska)

The merchant association also has a great website to check out some of the other shops and restaurants, and directions to get there. Want to try public tranportation that's also scenic? Try the water taxi from downtown Seattle!

Savings: $52

KonMari Krisis

We know that thrift stores are only able to sell about 25% of their donated goods at their regular retail stores. What about the other 75%? The leftovers are divided between:

• outlet stores to be sold at a deep discount,
• textile recycling (but this can be a challenge with blended fabrics), 
• being sold in bulk and moved on to developing countries, which can hurt their own textile industries and economies,
• ending up in the landfill anyway.

This all goes to say that donating isn't a perfect solution. New Years Resolutions to tidy your home only make it worse, and with this year's Marie Kondo Netflix special even more people are making serious resolutions to go minimal and get their house in order. What this means is thrift stores can't keep up, and leftovers end up in the trash anyway. In fact, Australian charities are paying $13 million a year to send unusable donations to landfill. 

How can you help?

If you are cleaning up:

• Upcycle, repurpose, or mend items - would you like that skirt better if it was shorter, or that bookshelf with a coat of paint?
• Directly give to friends or neighbors - your stuff may spark joy with a new owner!
• Directly give through neighborhood groups like Buy Nothing or Freecycle. Direct giving guarantees a new owner better than hoping it sells at the thrift store. 
• Clothing swaps - find joy in new-to-you items while finding a home for your old items. 
• Slowly downsize not by getting rid of large quantities at one time, but by simply not buying new things, then getting rid of items when they wear out

If you are looking for a deal:

• GET THRIFTING! Take this as a blanket license to go wild. Someone else's New Year's Resolution is your jackpot! Inventory is up on all categories of products: 
• Clothes
• Used books
• Housewares
• Crafting supplies/upcycle projects